Breathless Awakening (The Breathless Series) (13 page)

“I think we’re even. I didn’t mean to leave a mark either.”

Cailyn leaned out of the shower to look in the mirror. “What the fuck, Luke, at least the mark on your back isn’t going to be seen unless you have your shirt off. Everyone is going to see this.”

“At least they’ll know you’re mine.”

“Get out of here and let me take my shower and relax. Go find something to do because I’m going to be a while.” I smirked as I reached out to lightly tap her ass. “Don’t give me that look, mister, you are the one that let me fall back asleep this morning and rushed me into not getting a shower. I don’t care what you do, go play with yourself for all I care. I’m going to stand here in this hot water and relax.”

I didn’t want to chance upsetting her this early in the marriage, so I turned to walk out of the room. Just before the door shut I heard, “Then I’m going to get all pretty, try to cover up this hickey you left on me, and then I will give you the pleasure of taking me to dinner.”

As if Cailyn hadn’t made it clear enough that she had dismissed me, I heard my phone going off as I walked into the main room. I could tell by the ringtone that it was Zane, and I had no idea what he would want. Knowing him, he was just trying to interrupt the sex. Poor guy was so close yet so far away.

I rushed over to the nightstand where my phone sat. I didn’t make it before the voicemail picked up so I waited to see if he would leave one. As soon as the notification came through, I called the voicemail to listen.

“Hey, bro, hope things are going better there than they are here. I hope I am disturbing things with you all, wait, I mean I hope I’m not disturbing things. Anyway, I’m not supposed to be calling you, but I felt you needed to know. Terry had a heart attack today. He looked like death warmed over, but when they got him to the hospital and checked out it wasn’t as bad as everyone thought. I wanted you to know, but no need to call me back right now. I think Aileen is going to try to call Cailyn tomorrow after she talks to the doctors again. Oh yeah, in case you are wondering, I sent the guys back home and I’m crashing at your place. I figured with all this going on that I would stick around in case you needed me. Later.”

Holy shit! Terry hadn’t officially been a father figure in my life for a day and I almost lost him. I knew Cailyn was going to be devastated when she heard this. Keeping this from her wasn’t an option, but I didn’t want her to think we needed to rush home either. I sent Zane a quick text to thank him for letting me know, and to tell him that I was going to say something to Cailyn about it after dinner tonight. There went my plans of anything exciting happening this evening, but maybe it would get me out of having to sit and have drinks with those flight attendants.

Chapter Fifteen

Zane

It took a while to get things loaded up at the Donnelly’s since Cailyn didn’t have a lot of her stuff packed. She knew she was going to be moving to Luke’s, but I guessed that since his place was so small and she had been so involved with the wedding preparations, she hadn’t worried too much about it. I decided I had better try to call Luke and let him know about what was going on.

I understood Rhylie wanting to keep them in the dark, but I felt wrong doing that. Luke and I knew firsthand how quickly things could turn around with people in the hospital. When our mother was battling cancer, we had been told she kicked its ass. She was supposed to be in remission, but then it came back out of nowhere and took her within a week. I couldn’t let Cailyn not even know her father was in the hospital, but I didn’t think it was my place to be the one to tell her. Good thing she had Luke now.

As his phone went to voicemail, I couldn’t help but be relieved. Hopefully they weren’t in the middle of fucking or anything. Wouldn’t that be great? First, I interrupt, then they listen to the message and hear the news. I hoped to God that Luke had the brains not to listen to it on speaker.

Just as I hung up, Celeste opened the door to the truck and hopped in. “Do you mind if I ride back with ya? I would love to hear some more stories about Ryan.”

“Nah, I don’t mind at all. I think you’ve heard the best of them though. The rest are just stories about him being the shy guy, always the last one to picked on teams, you know stuff like that. That’s actually how he fell into our group.” Celeste deflated a little as she hopped up into the truck and buckled her seatbelt.

“He has always been the quiet one, and when he was little, he got picked on a lot. Jeremy being the peacemaker, he couldn’t stand by and watch it anymore, so one day he decided to step in and try to stand up for Ryan. That worked for about thirty seconds until Jeremy got knocked on his ass. Breck didn’t care much if that happened to a kid he didn’t know, but he wasn’t going to let someone do that to Jeremy. All it took was Breck walking across the playground and the bullies took off running. No one has ever wanted to mess with Breck, at least no one sane.”

“You sure we are talking about the same guy here? I mean, yeah, he can be a little on the quiet side and all, but I don’t see him being picked on like that.”

“Celeste, answer me this. What happened when we gave him a little grief this morning over spending the night with you? You saw how he sulked and went back inside. That’s his nature. We mean it all in fun, and he knows that most of the time. I think you will do him good, maybe put a little spunk in him. But when he was growing up that kind of attitude just begged for other kids to pick on him.”

“Well, I was hoping he could put a little spunk in me.”

Shaking my head, I looked over at her while she smiled at me. “Alright, I walked right into that one, but just for the record, I don’t need to hear about your sex life with my friend. That’s just wrong.”

Just as I started the truck to leave, I got a text from Luke.

Luke: Hey, bro, thanks for letting me know. Keep me updated. I’ll tell Cailyn later.

Not telling Cailyn was a gamble, but I couldn’t help but be relieved that she didn’t know yet. Hopefully by the time he told her it would be too late on the East Coast for them to call and let anyone know that I spilled the news. But then again, would I hold off on calling if it were my family? Normally I didn’t second‐guess, but this time I wasn’t sure if I did the right thing or not. One could only hope that I had made the right choice because I was going to live with it either way. Better to just get this stuff back to the house and get busy to get it off my mind.

Ryan came out of the house as he saw us pull up. To Celeste it was cute to have him smitten with her, but to the rest of us it was just downright comical. Liz was the first one out of a car, but almost simultaneously heard the catcalls for Camper.

He looked at Celeste for help, almost as if she was his new savior. I could tell that bothered her a little. She found his little idiosyncrasies cute, but she still wanted a man that could take it as well as he could dish it out. This was one strong willed woman, and if Ryan couldn’t take what she had to offer then they weren’t going to last.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m not here to stand up for you. I’m too busy figuring out when and where we are going camping next. I do have to say, I think it qualifies more as a teepee than a tent.”

“You all are assholes! I don’t know why you thought you had to share that story with her. You just had to go and embarrass me with one of the worst days of my life. Thanks guys. I see what kind of friends you really are now.”

Breck stepped up and clapped him on the back before taking a drink from his flask. I was starting to wonder where he had them stashed or how he was getting them refilled. “No problem, buddy. Oh, and by the way, she heard about your first kiss too.”

Ryan’s face was blood red instantly. I saw it happen, but I was too far away to stop it. Breck had turned away to walk towards the house as Ryan clenched his hand into a fist. His left hand reached up and touched Breck on the shoulder to get him to turn around. Before he even saw him start to turn, Ryan unleashed a swing aimed right between the eyes.

Now Breck’s face that was blood red, but this was in the literal sense. No one had ever stood up to Breck. First because Breck hardly ever did anything to need put in his place, but secondly because all you had to do was look at him to be scared. I really needed to have that talk with him about all this drinking.

I wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol, the shock, or maybe he realized he had stepped over the line. Whatever it was, Breck walked off to stop his nose from bleeding. Then again, it could have been that he knew if he reciprocated that he would have ended up in jail for murder. This was going to make the rest of the day fun and interesting. Hopefully Breck would cool off before coming back to help unload things.

Celeste walked over to Ryan beaming with pride. “I wish you didn’t have to go back home, I found it pretty hot watching you stand up for yourself. Guess Amber will be the one to benefit from that tonight.”

“Please don’t go teasing me like that. If I had brought my own car, I would stay. I’ll try to come back next weekend. The drive only takes about an hour.”

As the guys climbed into my car, and the girls each got in theirs, I grabbed Rhylie’s attention and asked her to step inside with me. “Have you heard anything else from Aileen? Any word on how Terry is doing?”

“No, we haven’t heard a thing. I was thinking about running by there on my way home if you want to ride along. Are you planning to stay here tonight? I’ve got a futon if you want to crash at my place. The futon isn’t much, but it would be better than the floor here. Maybe you can drive the rental truck back?”

“I appreciate it, but I don’t want to impose on you. You have work tomorrow I’m sure. I’ll need to be here for the delivery guys whenever they come. I wanted to let you know though that I did call Luke earlier. I didn’t get a hold of him, but I left him a voicemail letting him know the situation.”

“What? How could you? Cailyn is going to be a wreck! And normally I wouldn’t have to work, but since I closed down for the wedding I had to shuffle a few people to Monday.”

“Look, Luke and I lost our mother very quickly in the hospital when she wasn’t even supposed to be there. She was supposed to be healthy. I’m not going to sit back and not let Cailyn know. She needs to be able to at least call and talk to him. I’m sure he will make sure she doesn’t come rushing home, but at least she can talk to him. Would you want to be the one to tell her when she got home that he had spent the week in the hospital, but you thought it best to not let her know about it?”

“Mrs. D. was going to call her tomorrow to tell her. They don’t really know anything yet, so there is no reason to worry her.”

“Sure, and my mother was in remission when she died from cancer. Doctors don’t always know what they are talking about.” I was pissed. I did what I felt was right. Nothing was going to change that. I couldn’t take it back if I wanted to. Storming off down the hall as if I had somewhere to go, but every room was just as empty as the next.

“I’m sorry, Zane. I didn’t know. Just do me a favor and see if you can get Luke to hold off until the morning. Let Cailyn enjoy their first night there without worrying.” Rhylie looked sincere in her apology, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear it. “And the offer to crash at my place is still an option. You’re right, I do have to work tomorrow, but I can drop you off back here on the way in to the salon. I don’t mind. What are you going to do here anyway?”

Rhylie had a point. I couldn’t unpack for them because I didn’t know what they wanted where. There wasn’t any cable hooked up yet, so even if I pulled a TV out of the garage I would have to sit on the floor to watch nothing. “Yea, I guess you’re right. Do you mind if we skip the hospital though? I haven’t really been comfortable with them since I was a kid.”

“How about I drop you off at my place then? I want to head up and see if Aileen needs anything, and it will give you a chance to get a shower. I’ll even pick up something for dinner while I’m out.”

“It’s a date.” I was still a little upset, but a shower sounded great. Of course, a real meal, even if it were fast food, sounded better than rummaging through Luke’s canned goods.

“Whoa, slow down cowboy. I offered you my futon, not my bed. I’m not trying to make a move on you, and you certainly are not going to make a move on me.”

“Chill, I was being sarcastic. That shower is calling my name though, even if all you probably have is some fruity body wash.”

“You may not be able to smell yourself right now, but some fruity body wash would do you some good.”

Rhylie

I dropped Zane off at my place and told him to make himself at home. His comment earlier about dinner being a date made me unsure about the situation. Hitting on to him was the last thing I meant to do, I was trying to be a friend and give him something a little more comfortable to sleep on. He was doing a nice thing by staying in town to help the Donnelly’s out, so why wouldn’t I be nice in return. When he said that, I couldn’t deny the fact that I could feel myself getting a little excited.

Had it really been so long since I had a date that just a simple takeout dinner at my place could make me get excited? I couldn’t deny that he was a good‐looking guy. While Luke had more of the military look, Zane definitely had a more relaxed aura about him. Maybe if it had been a little warmer, I would have been able to see what was under that shirt. Hell, for that matter, why was I going to the hospital instead of staying home right now? I could have sneaked a peek of him in a towel, or perhaps even without it.

That train of thought had to stop right there, it had not been that long. I had the will to restrain myself from the thoughts that ran through my head, even if my urges were causing my panties to get damp. I was almost to the hospital, and I needed to focus on seeing how Mr. D. was doing.

Stepping out of the car, I realized that maybe I should have had a shower before coming to the hospital. I walked up to the information desk to ask what room he was in and the receptionist looked at me as if I was a homeless person. I was definitely going to have to make this a quick trip so I could get home and cleaned up. Maybe Zane would try to sneak a peek of me in a towel.